The Exponentiation Operator in JavaScript
JavaScript used to rely on Math.pow for exponentiation. Oddly enough, it did not have an easy-to-write syntax for this purpose. However, the operator ** was added recently (in ECMAScript 2016 specification) to the language and it is now available in all major browsers and NodeJS.
This is how to use it:
const x = 2 ** 5 // 32
The exponentiation operator is right associative. For example, a ** b ** c is equivalent to a ** (b ** c).
Note: You cannot use unary operators (+, -, ~, !, delete, void, typeof) immediately before the base, because that makes the expression ambiguous.
This syntax is much easier to use than
Math.pow. I wonder if there is a performance boost, as well.Good question. Probably there is a better performance, because the method call is removed.
So, I ran a benchmark and turns out
**is almost three times faster thanMath.powon NodeJS.That's a very nice performance boost. It surely is an improvement.
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Great post,thanks
This post UpVoted from @oliverbix
good pointout for new habit of writing, thanks!
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